The Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP) and the InternationalJournal of Communications Law & Policy (IJCLP) are pleased to announce theirthird interdisciplinary writing competition and a call for papers inconjunction with the Access to Knowledge (A2K) Conference taking place onApril 21-23, 2006 at Yale Law School. We invite students, scholars, policymakers, activists and practitioners to submit papers for the writingcompetition and/or for publication by the IJCLP.

Conference Description

In the digital era, most multinational corporations and policymakers are ofthe view that the current trend characterised by increasing intellectualproperty rights and corporate control over knowledge best serve society'sinterests. At the same time, however, a growing number of commentatorsbelieve that widespread access to knowledge (A2K) and the preservation of ahealthy knowledge commons are the real basis for sustainable humandevelopment. Nonetheless, intellectual property-based approaches continue tosingle-handedly dictate global legal norms and shape national legalinfrastructures.

The first goal of the Yale A2K Initiative is to come up with a new analyticframework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policiesrelying exclusively on intellectual property rights. Beyond this aim, theA2K initiative seeks to support the adoption and development of alternativeways to foster greater access to knowledge in the digitally connectedenvironment.

The landmark A2K conference at Yale Law School will bring together leadingthinkers and activists on access to knowledge policy from North and South,in order to generate concrete research agendas and policy solutions for thenext decade. This conference will be among the first to synthesize themultifaceted and interdisciplinary aspects of access to knowledge, rangingfrom textbooks and telecommunications access to software and medicines. TheA2K Conference aims to help build an intellectual framework that willprotect access to knowledge both as the basis for sustainable humandevelopment and to safeguard human rights.

Key issues to be considered include, among others:

* the economics of A2K in a digital environment;* A2K indexes and measurement techniques;* the limitations to A2K;* digital libraries and archives;* government investment in information production;* government procurement policies;* open source software;* the WIPO Broadcast Treaty;* access to education and scientific knowledge;* universal service in telecommunications;* the digital divide;* digital rights management;* open access journals.

Submissions for the writing competition must be received by noon EST,February 15th, 2006. The author of the best paper, as well as two runners-upwill be invited to present their work at a panel during the conference. Theauthor of the winning paper will receive coverage of his/her travel to andaccommodations at Yale University for the conference. Selected papers willbe announced by April 1st, 2006. The authors of the award-winning paperswill automatically be invited to publish their work in a special Autumn 2006volume of the International Journal of Communications Law & Policy(http://www.ijclp.org <http://www.ijclp.org> ) devoted to Access toKnowledge.

Journal Publication

Submissions for publication must be received by noon EST, May 1st, 2006. Theselection committee, composed of the editorial board of the IJCLP, and someof the Yale ISP Fellows, will review and consider all submissions forpublication in the special Autumn 2006 volume of the journal, includingsubmissions for the writing competition. Authors will be notified ofacceptance by June 15th, 2006.

Submission Guidelines

Papers may be submitted on any A2K-related issue, provided that they liewithin the central focus of the IJCLP - communications law & policy. Allsubmissions should be written in English in .rtf or .pdf format. They shouldconform to academic citation standards, be no longer than 25,000 words, andinclude an abstract of up to 250 words. Submissions should be e-mailedsimultaneously to the lead editors of the IJCLP, Simone Francesco Bonetti (<mailto:simo.bonetti_at_tiscalinet.it> simo.bonetti[at]tiscalinet.it) andSudhir Krishnaswamy (krishnaswamysudhir[at]gmail.com). Inquiries may beaddressed to any of the above.